To-day, yes, now!... She couldn't wait, for her uncle was coming to-night. It must be now, this minute. She went back to Bobbie.
"I'm going to try it, darling," she told him, kissing his cheek. "Sit right here until I get back. Hang to Petey. He might follow me."
Then cautiously she dragged her body through the hole in the window, and began to crawl along the stone ledge. The roar of the water on the rocks below made her dizzy. But over and over did she cry into God's ever listening ear:
"He has given--he has given his angels--angels charge over thee."
Jinnie reached the corner of the building, and looked out over the city. The ledge extended around the other side of the building, and she turned the corner and went slowly onward. At the south end she stopped still, glancing about.
Only one thing of any value was in the range of her vision. The two long ropes she had seen long before were still hanging from the roof and fastened securely to a large plank almost on the ground. It brought to Jinnie's mind what Lafe had told her,--of Jimmie Malligan who had been killed, and of how he himself had lost his legs.
Could she, by means of the rope, save the three precious things back in that awful room--Bobbie, Happy Pete, and her fiddle?
To be once more under God's sun with the blue above gave her new strength. Then she turned and crawled slowly back.
At the corner she grew faint-hearted. It must have been the gorge below that made her breath come in catching sobs. But on and on she went until through the window she could see Bobbie with Happy Pete asleep in his arms. The child was still muttering over his little prayers, his blind eyes rolling in bewildered anxiety.
Jinnie was very white when she sat down beside him. Putting her face close to his, she brushed his cheek lovingly.
"Bobbie," she said, touching his hair with her lips, "how much do you love Jinnie?"
"More'n all the world," replied Bobbie without hesitation.
"Then if you love me _that_ much, you'll do just what I tell you."
"Yes," Bobbie assured her under his breath.
Jinnie took a towel--she couldn't find a rope--and strapped the violin to Bobbie's back.
"I've got to take my fiddle with me, dearie," she explained, "and I can't carry it because I've got you. You can't carry it because you've got to hold Happy Pete.... Now, then, come on!"